Quality of life benefits from arrhythmia ablation: A longitudinal study using the C-CAP questionnaire and EQ5D

Area of Science:

• Cardiology
• Electrophysiology
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Symptomatic arrhythmias significantly impair patients' quality of life.
• Cardiac ablation is a common treatment, but long-term efficacy data on quality of life are crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the long-term efficacy of cardiac ablation for symptomatic arrhythmias.
• To evaluate generic and arrhythmia-specific quality of life changes using patient-reported outcomes.

Main Methods:

• A prospective study enrolled 561 patients undergoing cardiac ablation across three UK sites.
• Patient-reported outcome measures were collected at baseline, 8-16 weeks, and 12 months post-ablation.
• Nonparametric tests analyzed changes in quality of life and symptom severity.

Main Results:

• Significant improvements were observed in symptom severity, impact on life, EQ-5D-5L indices, and visual analogue scale (VAS) scores at 3 months and 1 year post-ablation.
• Quality of life improvements were maintained between 3 months and 1 year.
• The impact on life score showed further improvement at 1 year compared to 3 months.

Conclusions:

• Cardiac ablation effectively relieves symptoms and improves quality of life for patients with arrhythmias.
• The positive effects of cardiac ablation on quality of life are sustained at the 1-year follow-up.